A few years back, we were planning a return trip to Colorado. We loved our first visit out there, it was just way too short! We pounded out more gigs than we had days there if I recall. Crazy! But every one of them was great, and we met some great people along the way as well.
So, one year later, I began calling and e-mailing to put together a return trip. My first course of action is to call the folks who specifically invited us back. They said, “Just call and let us know when you are coming again!” So, I did.
After a week or two, with no response to my calls or e-mails, I thought, “I guess I should try again!” So, I did.
Being a few years ago, I do not recall the specific order of the events, but I tried several times up front (this was the fall of 2002, only months after we had been there earlier that year) and then had to take a break as it was the Christmas season – our busiest season of the year.
When the new year rolled around, the Colorado trip entered my mind again, and my jaw just about hit the floor as I remembered that I had not heard from anyone about this trip. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON. These were people who wanted us to come. Really! They did! These were people we kinda knew. Not just random, blind-call strangers. Whoa. That was weird.
So, I tried again. 🙂
Guess what happened? NOTHING! Not a single response. When I called, I left messages. When I e-mailed, I heard nothing in return. Nothing. Very strange.
It was at this point that I finally had a thought. “Hmm… what if God is trying to tell me something?” (How about that for paying attention?) 🙂 So, I told him, “OK… I’ll try one more time, and if there’s no response still by Friday, we’ll do something else.”
You have to recall, at this time, that was our only income. We were newly on our own (with no support financially from a church or any other source of income) and gigs were the only way I knew that God would provide… or so I thought at the time. And, at this point we were only weeks away from when I planned for us to leave! So, saying to Him that if nothing works out I would “do something else” was a bit scary. Not many places would be available for gigs… how would we pay the rent?
I did trust him, so I waited.
You probably have guessed already what happened that week. Yep! Nothing! Not a single response. I couldn’t believe it!!! It was nuts! But something else happened later that week. I started thinking of a TON of places that had asked us to come, but we never got around to following up on that because they were all scattered about in random places. That did not make it easy to plan a smooth tour to visit them like our Florida trips or West Coast trips. But these places were a very strong thought in the front of my brain, so I started writing them down.
As I was putting these dozens of places down on paper, I realized this was what God wanted us to do instead. I could tell that was from him. So I stopped and made sure that’s what he was saying, and he confirmed as much in me. So, that Friday that I agreed to go a different way if nothing happened – and nothing had – I kept my word. I said to God, “OK, we’ll go with your plan!”
Not an hour later, the phone rang. It was Rick from a church in Colorado. He called to say how busy he had been and that he was so sorry he had not been able to call back. Then he asked when we were coming out, and told me he wanted to plug us in wherever he could when we were out there.
And I laughed!
I told him most of the story, and he agreed with me that perhaps God had something different in store for us. Something better. So, I told him we would call again another time, but for now, we needed to check out this other avenue.
To further and finally confirm that God was behind all of this, I called a few of the places that had come to mind earlier. We were only weeks away from the now open weekends that I was calling about. That is definitely not enough advance warning for most of the places I was calling. But, as you may have already guessed, every place I called was not only excited to have us come, they needed us to come in two weeks. Within only a few days I had filled a calendar that I was trying for months to fill according to my own grand schemes. Amazing.
So, God just absolutely closed the door. Completely. I wish he was always that clear. But even still, as all of that fell together, we were not really sure why not Colorado? It seemed like a fine plan to us? When looking back on the whole time later, we also noticed that because we had not left for a big chunk of time as we were planning to do, God dropped a house in our laps! Right next door to some great friends of ours and in perfect condition, at a price we couldn’t afford, but somehow were able to… again… amazing.
We had great plans, but God’s were greater.
So. Flash forward a little more than two years later. Here we are again. God continues to lead, providing means of income where I can certainly not take the credit. Leading us every step of the way. But at the moment, we are in the middle stage of the Colorado Effect.
God has closed the doors, and as yet we are not certain what he wants us to do. Money is so tight that we are consistently late on bills now. Not so late that we are getting calls or anything. Just… late. The money always comes in, and we so far always pay our bills, just not according to our schedule.
The best part was, a few weeks back I had this awesome idea! I took a look at the boxes and boxes of CDs that were sitting over in the corner of my office and I thought, “Those need a home!” I thought of all the people who love our music, and how they might want to help us out by buying a bunch of our CDs at a lower, bulk rate so that they could either give them to friends or even resell them for a small profit. I made an awesome web page that people could use, and presented it as a Memorial Day Sale that made it a festive, fun occasion.
The entire time I was putting this project together, God was gently saying, “It’s going to be just like Colorado.” I said, “I don’t CARE! I need money! This is a GREAT IDEA! I’m going to DO IT!”
Still, the quiet thought persisted, “It will be just like Colorado.”
So, by about 2:00am that night, I finally accepted that truth. I still told God that I needed to do it. I just needed to finish it and watch his prediction come true. I just had to.
So, I did.
And, by now you most certainly have guessed what happened. And again, you are correct…. NOTHING. Not a single response to my webpage and fancy e-mail. Not one, “Hello!” or, “Good idea!” or, “Hope it goes well!”. Nothing. We always get at least a handful of responses to our e-mails. This time, none.
By now, I was able to laugh with God and share the story with Jen of what He had told me. But I remain in the dark about what he really wants me to do. I can only continue on the path I am on until he lets me know a different way. I know he will. I look forward to discovering his better idea. 🙂
Have you been there? Have you had God completely stop you from doing some good thing you were trying to do? There was nothing wrong with our Colorado trip, or my cool Memorial Day Sale idea… God just definitely didn’t want that to happen. He had something better.
There was a time in Acts that Paul and his friends were traveling around telling people about Jesus and life in God’s kingdom, and God kept stopping them from going to a certain place they wanted to go. What? Why would he do that? Why would he stop them from telling people about life in Him?!?? After several attempts foiled by God, Paul had a vision of a man in another region asking them to come help. They knew that was from God, and went there immediately and were able to do some great things there.
Their original plan was not bad, God just had a better one.
Sometimes he says no. Sometimes he shuts the door. That almost always is at least annoying, sometimes it’s downright maddening. But as we learn to trust Father’s goodness, and his complete and unconditional love for us, we can see past the frustration and closed doors to the bigger scope of God’s plan. He has something more, something better. I am not completely there, but oh how I long to be. To live so free that I know every closed door, no matter how hard it seems, is really an open door to something even better.
Even better than Colorado.
This is an interesting link I found a while ago. If you are at all a Mac enthusiast (like us) then you might be interested. It’s an hour long TV show about the Mac from TWENTY years ago! The clothing and hair-dos alone are worth clicking the link… 🙂 But, besides that, it’s pretty fascinating to see how much we could do back then, and how little we could do! Crazy!